Decision details

1)    Agree for Cheltenham Borough Homes’ Housing Options Service to replace their vacant Benefit & Money Advisor post with an additional Housing Options Officer.

2)    Vary the contractual arrangements with North & West Gloucestershire Citizens Advice so that the price of the contract can be increased from £108,200/year to £121,200/year for this financial year and for the remaining period of the contract (i.e. to 31^st March 2025, extendable to 31^st March 2027, subject to satisfactory performance and finances permitting). 

·                     A 20% increase in homelessness applications during 2022/23 compared with the previous financial year – and more particularly, a 65% increase from April to June 2023, compared with the same quarter last year (i.e. 185 applications compared with 112 applications). Furthermore, it is anticipated that these pressures on our homelessness service will continue, in particular due to a high number of evictions in the private rented sector, and with low income households being increasingly priced out of this market (given that the Local Housing Allowance as not kept pace with rising rents).

·                     A 30% increase in placements into emergency accommodation (usually Bed & Breakfast) in 2022/23 compared with the previous year.

·                     An increase from 611 household enquiries in 2021/20 to 1028 enquiries in 2022/23. 

·                     In addition, households are presenting with increasingly complex issues. This in turn is having an impact on employees within the Housing Options Service, with increased stress and pressure. It is notable that the Housing Options Service had a staff turnover of 33% over 2022/23 compared with the CBH average of 14%.

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1.2  These local pressures are not unique to Cheltenham. Nationally, as at the end of December 2022:

·         101,300 households were in temporary accommodation – a 5.2% increase compared with December 2021;

·         12,220 households were in emergency (Bed & Breakfast) accommodation – a 31% increase against the previous year;

·         There has been a 50% increase in no fault evictions from the private rented sector compared with the previous year. 

1.3  Our proposed changes will lead to operational improvements to the Housing Options Service as follows:

·         Upskilling Housing Options Officers on some of the key functions previously provided by the Housing Options Team’s Benefits and Money Advisor, as set out in section 1.3 above;

·         Providing greater resilience within the Housing Options Team to deal with the increase in caseload and complexity of cases;  

·         Better customer services for private landlords who have accommodated homeless families via our Housing Options Service, in that more officers will be skilled up to assist with their queries; 

·         CBC’s Revenues and Benefits Team will benefit from taking back ownership of their Revenues and Benefits webpages (which has been welcomed); and

·         Providing greater clarity for Cheltenham residents in terms of where they should go for specialist advice and assistance on benefits (i.e. to Citizens Advice). 

Finally, the proposed increase in the price of CBC’s contract with Citizens

Advice will help support any potential increase in demand on their services

arising from this change in focus by the Housing Options Service. Procurement rules allow for a contract variation of up to 10%. The proposed increase in the price of the contract will be within this 10% margin. (i.e. current value of the contract over 5 years = £541,000; potential uplift in value for remaining 4 years of the contract (if extended to March 2027) = £593,000. This is a 9.6% increase.)  

1.1  Change nothing, and recruit another Benefit & Money Advisor into the vacant post within CBH’s Housing Options Service. This option is rejected, because it would mean that the opportunities as set out in section 2.3 above would be missed. 

1.2  Not recruit into the Benefit & Money Advisor post, and instead take the post as a budget saving. This option is rejected because it does not address the increasing challenges experienced by the Housing Options Service, as set out in 2.1 above. 

1.3  Change the roles within the Housing Options Service, and not vary the price of the CAB contract. This option is rejected on the grounds we have seen an impact on Citizens’ Advice Service as a result of CBH’s Benefits & Money Advisor post remaining vacant. Allocating additional funding of £13,000/year for the remaining period of the contract is permissible within procurement and contract regulations, and can be sourced from unallocated homelessness prevention grant funding, provided by DLUHC. There would therefore be no impact on the General Fund for the period of the contract. 

This decision has been taken in consultation with Cabinet Member for Housing, CBC’s Revenues and Benefit’s Team, CBH’s Housing Options Service and North & West Gloucestershire Citizens’ Advice Service. Our Cabinet Member for Housing, CBC’s Revenues & Benefits Team and CBH’s Housing Options Team are all supportive of these proposals.